I’ve commented on this a few times, since it pervades so many issues for BF.
I’m on Discord with a group of RL friends on a Friday night (check out my YouTube stream from last night hehe). It’s the best fun to be had in BF.
I do not want, however, to hear some random 12-year-olds squealing or their family members shouting and their music in the background (it’s barely tolerable with my friend’s kid playing, but it’s different when you can tell them to calm down and they will, rather than hurl childish abuse).
Have you seen the text chat? And that’s the ones that go to the effort of typing. I’m glad voice is not common. It’s the first thing I turn off, sorry.
In ‘the old days’ the only people playing (on PCs anyway) were adults and/or proper geeky fans due to many factors including cost and effort. It was real hobbyists and like-minded people, so, sure, random voice chat could/would have been good.
I’m comfortable in suggesting the level of online decorum has dropped considerably because we now have a much wider cross-section of society playing. Anyone can get online these days, no matter the level of maturity or intelligence.
It’s down to same reason people seem to think it’s ok to put abuse and pics of their genitalia online. Probably the same people.
I had amaaaazing times in Everquest (1) back on dial-up. Slower game so text chat was ok and verbose. Even geekier, grown-up crowd so always like-minded and nice, reasonable people. Comms in World of Warcraft? shudder Hideous, just a few years later.
I’m hoping eventually people will come to understand that it’s not ok to behave differently online, but currently there are no consequences.
I’m guilty too - the anonymity does change things. I occasionally ‘forcefully cajole’ people in game to try and get frustrating games moving or frustrating people to behave, but I wouldn’t shout at a bunch of strangers in real life. I try and behave and I’m aware it’s wrong not to. Many others have no such comprehension or restraint.